One of the things that always fascinates me when taking photos is the amount you can capture in such a small frame. The small rectangular image that your camera lens creates can fit so much in, not just physically either. You can fit a story, a symbol, or even an entire memory in just one click.
I came across this image quite recently after filtering through my winter images from last year, and it really stood out for me. I remember the day I took this, I was walking along the streets towards university one frosty afternoon, and the sun was particularly low as it was starting set below the hill of my street, so I detoured from my usual route to see the light it was leaving behind. As I walked up to this wall on the far side of the road, that is when I saw, covered in the newly laid frost, this lone cigarette packet. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to document it as soon as I saw it. I love it when I get that feeling, the feeling inside that I should get my camera out and document a moment or an image. Call it creative intuition, or photographic instinct, it doesn't matter to me what it is called. It's just that feeling you get when you know that you will regret not documenting that scene, even if it can seem so insignificant. After I took this photo, I started to think about what about it gave me that feeling, why I wanted that image in my collection so much, and I realised something; I felt this image not only shows the kind of litter problem the world is facing today, but it also encapsulates the still prominent issue of tobacco consumption.
Now I know what you are now thinking, but this post is not aimed to turn into a rant about climate change or a list of facts about the current state of the planet, nor is it a rant about the effects of cigarette smoke on people's health, we get plenty of those from organisations and newspapers. But as they say, a picture paints a thousand words, and when I saw this scene I just had to capture it, as I felt it created a certain atmosphere which says everything. That is the part I love the most about this craft, the ability to find symbolism and even a full story in just one frame, and this scene in particular manages to symbolise the changing face of the world, with litter such as this being consumed by the frost and the land. At times like this I like to imagine the story behind this scene, the way it came to be and the thought behind it. By the looks of things, this kind of scene was almost certainly not on purpose, but that just makes me wonder how that box got there. Was it a lone stranger sat on the wall smoking, and leaving the box behind when they left? Was it a group of drunken students who just threw it when they were done with it on their way home one night? Or was it accidentally dropped by an oblivious walker? It is impossible to tell, but it is less impossible to tell what will happen to it. Litter like that may never get picked up, it may blow away into a drain or into the sea, or it could get swallowed by some poor clueless creature. The true result of this scenario is unclear, but when I come across scenes like this and take time to look into it, I like to think about what might have lead to it, and what could happen after I take the photo. However, looking at this particular scene, if we listen to anything we read in the news or online, we can conclude that the answer to either of those questions cannot be good.
I would like to leave you now with the words of the Lorax, created by the genius that is Dr Seuss:
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. its not."
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